Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
www.iiste.org
Introduction
Electrolysis of water for hydrogen production has been known since the early nineteenth century. In the
electrolysis process that is used in this project, hydrogen and oxygen are produced at the same time and collected
as a mixture to be used as a fuel.
In the electrolysis process, a direct current is passing through water between two electrodes (anode and cathode).
The electric current will then dissociate the water into hydrogen and oxygen gases that are collected as a mixture
called HHO.
Electrolysis process is considered a promising technology for the production of clean and sustainable source of
energy because it uses water as the main raw material and needs very small energy (electricity) to produce
valuable fuel (HHO) without any abuse to the environment (Le et al. 2010, Afgan & Veziroghu 2010, Barton &
Gammon 2010). Production of hydrogen without fossil fuel-based processes is one suitable alternative solution
in the near future (Grania et al. 2007, Gomes Antunes et al. 2009, Corbo et al. 2010, Zhang & Zhou 2011). One
of the most popular research areas in hydrogen production by utilizing renewable energy sources is the efficiency
enhancement of the electrolysis process by means of reducing the electric power consumption in the electrolyzer.
Many factors have been studied to reach elevated levels of current densities by maintaining or even reducing the
electrolysis cell voltage. Galney (2009) studied the electrolysis process efficiency of a high temperature and
pressure electrolyte. He found that an acceptable fall in the amount of required voltage in the case of targeting
any given current density is achieved at atmospheric pressure and temperature levels between 200 oC and 400
o
C. On the other hand, Nagi et al. (2003) expressed that conducting electrolysis in higher temperature decrease
the equilibrium voltage of water because it enlarges the gas bubbles size and reduces their rising velocity. As a
result, the void fraction in the electrolyte will increase and the efficiency will decrease. Mansouri et al. (2001)
tried to increase the efficiency and lower the capital costs of hydrogen production by reaching higher current
density in the conventional electrolyzers. They found that increasing electrolyte pressure leads to less power
consumption as it reduces the diameter of produced gas bubbles. Therefore, the ohmic voltage drop and power
dissipation between electrodes are reduced. Badwal et al. (2006) found that the pH of the water that is used as
the electrolyte affected the required voltage to drive an electrolytic bath on a certain current significantly due to
the conductivity of the electrolyte. On the other hand, it is well known that high acid or base concentration
liquids have sever negative corrosion effects on the electrodes. Therefore, a balance between the pH and voltage
is required. Petrov et al. (2011) found that 25-30% KOH solution is the most suitable concentration in the
electrolysis processes. Mazloomi and Nasri (2012) have analyzed several factors influencing water electrolysis
efficiency by studying available verified information in electrical, electrochemical, chemical, thermodynamics
and fluid mechanics fields such as distance between electrodes, their size, alignment and shape.
In this study several factors affecting the amount of hydrogen and oxygen gas produced by the electrolysis of
water will be investigated as a function of input power such as electrolyte type, electrodes spacing, electrodes
surface morphology (smooth or rough), electrodes effective area (or number of electrodes) and electrodes
www.iiste.org
connection configuration. This is expected to improve the efficiency of the electrolysis process by producing
more gas per watts.
2.
Figure 1 shows a complete setup consisting of a Plexiglas container containing the electrolyte and the electrodes
that are connected to the 12 V battery in order to provide the cell with the required current for electrolysis. The
cathodes and anodes were manufactured from stainless steel 316L. The plate electrodes dimensions were (17 cm
length, 15 cm width and 1 mm thickness) while the tubes dimensions were ( 15 cm height, 1 cm inner diameter
and 1 mm thickness). The spacing between the anodes and cathodes in both designs was 2-3 mm.
Ammeter
Switch
Circuit breaker
Battery
Container
Electrodes
Bubbler
Figure 1: The electrolysis setup showing the Plexiglas container, the electrodes, the electrolyte and the bubbler.
The electrical current was measured by an Ammeter connected in series with the circuit. The bubbler was
connected right after the electrolyzer and used as a safety piece. When the HHO gas comes out of the
electrolyzer, it goes through the bubbler which is filled with a liquid (usually water or vinegar) and out of the
other end to be used from there. Therefore the bubbler cools the warm gas and cleans it from any electrolyte
particles going out with gas. It is important to use a non-return valve between the electrolyzer and the bubbler to
prevent bubbler water being pushed back into the electrolyzer in case of backfire.
Before using the electrodes for the first time, they were pretreated or activated because smooth surfaces would
not produce significant quantity of HHO without activation. Therefore, the electrodes left unused in the KOH
solution for 24 hour in order to receive a white coating. Once the power was first applied, very little electrolysis
took place as the active surfaces get covered with bubbles which stick to them and a scum was formed on the
water surface. After cleaning the scum and repeating the process few times, the scum no longer forms and the
active electrodes surfaces had the white coating.
www.iiste.org
www.iiste.org
In this project a study to enhance the efficiency of HHO gas production from water by electrolysis was
conducted taking into account the effect of, electrolyte type and concentration, electrodes spacing, electrodes
surface morphology (smooth or rough), electrodes connection configuration and electrodes effective area
(number of electrodes) on the amount of HHO gas flow rate production and electrolyzer efficiency.
Using Faradys first law of electrolysis (eqn. 1), the theoretical amount of HHO flow rate in liter per hour for one
*cell was calculated.
(1)
Where V is the volume of gas in Liters (L) per one cell, R is the ideal gas constant (0.082 L.atm/mol.K), I is the
electrical current in Amber (A), T is the temperature of the solution in Kelvin (K), t is the electrolysis time in
seconds (s), P is the ambient pressure in atmosphere (atm), F is Faradays constant (96500 C/mol) and z is the
number of excess electrons (2 for H2 and 4 for O2).The electrolyzer efficiency is usually calculated based on the
ratio of the amount of the gas flow rate measured experimentally and that calculated theoretically from Faradays
law.
In this project, an electrical power was discharged into the water which was decomposed into hydrogen and
oxygen. The measured flow rate was composed of both hydrogen and oxygen together. This means the volume
calculated from Faradays law is equal to the volume of both gases in which the amount of hydrogen produced is
twice that of oxygen because each mole of H2O is dissociated to produce 2 moles of H2 and 1 mole of O2.
3.1.
Low current below 20 A was achieved by controlling the electrolyte concentration for different electrodes shapes
and configurations. It is clear from Table 1 that the use of plates electrodes is better than using cylindrical
electrodes due to the increase in the active surface area, hence increasing gas flow rate production at lower
electrical current. It is also obvious that plates electrodes showed higher efficiency than that for cylinders in
addition to higher HHO flow rate.
Low current below 20 A was achieved by controlling the electrolyte concentration for different electrodes shapes
and configurations. It is clear from Table 1 that the use of plates electrodes is better than using cylindrical
4
www.iiste.org
electrodes due to the increase in the active surface area, hence increasing gas flow rate production at lower
electrical current. The HHO produced in this project was collected as oxygen and hydrogen mixture. It is also
obvious that plates electrodes showed higher efficiency than that for cylinders in addition to higher HHO flow
rate.
Table 1: Electrodes Connection and Configuration at low current
Connection
Electrolyte
Current
Flow rate
Efficiency
(A)
(ml/min)
5C5A0N
2 g KOH/3L
13
209
15.92
5C5A9N
3 g KOH/3L
10
216
21.39
3C3A10N
10 g KOH/3L
11
352
57.04
1 cylinder
0.5 g KOH/3 L
86
44.57
2 cyl in parallel
0.5 g KOH/3L
10
120
35.65
3 cyl in parallel
0.5 g KOH/3L
13
190
26.05
2 cyl in series
0.5g KOH/3L
13
50
11.42
3 cyl in series
0.5 g KOH/3L
16
90
10.03
It is clear that the maximum gas flow rate was 190 ml/min for 3 cylinders connected in parallel where the current
was 13 A. Increasing the number of cylinders increased the gas flow rate and the current simultaneously.
Comparing with the plate design, higher gas flow rate (352 ml/min) was achieved in the 3C3A10N at low current
(11 A). The connection of cylindrical electrodes in series obtained lower current but lower gas flow rates.
3.2 Electrolyte Type and Concentration
It is obvious from Table 2 that tap water is good in terms of cost, current and gas flow rate but it is not preferable
due to the corrosion effect on the elctrolyzer. The comparison between Sodium Carbonate and Potassium
Hydroxide shows that 174 ml/min was produced using Sodium Carbonate at 20 A and 20 plates while 209
ml/min was produced at 13 A using Potassium Hydroxide and 10 plates only. Therefore, KOH is preferable.
Table 2: Different electrolyte types for electrodes 10C10A0N & 5A5C0N
Connection
Electrolyte
Current
Flow rate
Efficiency
(A)
(ml/min)
10C10A0N
Tap water
11
200
8.53
10C10A0N
3 g Sodium
20
174
4.08
Carbonate/3L
10C10A0N
0.5g KOH/3L
20
250
5.86
5C5A0N
2 g KOH/3L
13
209
15.92
www.iiste.org
www.iiste.org
Electrolyte
Current (A)
Efficiency
%
5C5A0N
2.5 g KOH/3L
20
270
13.37
5C5A0N
5 g KOH/3L
38
490
12.77
5C5A0N
10 g KOH/3L
60
703
11.60
5C5A9N
5 g KOH/3L
20
403
19.96
5C5A9N
10 g KOH/3L
30
507
16.74
5C5A9N
15 g KOH/3L
45
660
14.53
3C3A10N
5 g KOH/3L
238
60.61
3C3A10N
10 g KOH/3L
11
352
57.04
3C3A10N
15 g KOH/3L
20
634
56.51
www.iiste.org
4C4A14N
Electrolyte
20 g KOH/3L
Polishing
Current
Flow rate
Efficiency
Electrodes
spacing
(mm)
(A)
(ml/min)
180
2-3
17
470
62.92
Conclusions
The results from this project showed that the plate electrodes are more suitable than the cylindrical ones
and the connection in parallel is better than that in series. Using neutral electrodes between the anodes and
cathodes (2 neutral plates between each electrode) reduces the electric current without affecting the flow rate
production significantly due to the increase in the effective area. It is found that the best efficient electrolyzer
consists of 22 plates (4 anodes, 4 cathodes and 14 neutrals) where each plate area was 17x15 cm2. When the 22
plates were connected in parallel and immersed in 20 g KOH/3L electrolyte, they produced HHO gas flow rate
of 740 ml/min at 20 A and 62.92 % efficiency.
Acknowledgment
This project was financially supported by Jordan University of Science & Technology during my second
sabbatical leave.
References
Afgan, N. & Veziroglu, A. (2012), Sustainable resilience of hydrogen energy system, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
37, 5461-5467.
Badwal, SPS., Giddey, S. & Ciachi, FT. (2006), Hydrogen and oxygen generation with polymer electrolyte
membrane (PEM)-based electrolytic technology, Ionics 12, 7-14.
Barton, J. & Gammon, R. (2010), The production of hydrogen fuel from renewable sources and its role in grid
operation, J. Power Sources 195, 8222-8235.
Corbo, P., Migliardini, F. & Veneri, O. (2010), Lithium polymer batteries and proton exchange membrane fuel
cells as energy sources in hydrogen electric vehicles, J Power Sources 195, 7849-7854.
Ganley, JC. (2009), High temperature and pressure alkaline electrolysis, International Journal of Hydrogen
Energy 34(5), .36043611.
Gomes Antunes, JM., Mikalsen, R. & Roskilly, AP. (2009), An experimental study of a direct injection
compression ignition hydrogen engine, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 34, 6516-6522.
Grana, LM., Oroz, R., Ursua, A., Sanchis, P. & Dieguez, PM. (2007), Renewable hydrogen production:
performance of an alkaline water electrolyzer working under emulated wind conditions, Energy Fuels
21,. 1699- 1706.
Lee, JW., Hawkin, B., Day, DM. & Reicosky, DC. (2010), Sustainability: the capacity of smokeless biomass
pyrolysis for energy production, global carbon capture and sequestration, Energy Environ. Sci. 3, 16951705.
Mansouri, K., Ibrik, K., Bensalah, N. & Abdel-Wahab, A. (2001), Anodic dissolution of pure aluminum during
electrocoagulation process: influence of supporting electrolyte initial pH, and current density, Industrial
and Engineering Chemistry Research 50(23), 1336213372.
Mazloomi, S.K. & NasriSulaiman (2012), Influencing factors of water electrolysis electrical efficiency,
www.iiste.org
Munther Issa Kandah finished his undergraduate study in Chemical Engineering from Yarmouk University (
Jordan) in 1987, his Master and PhD from McGill University (Canada) in 1993 and 1997, respectively. He is
working in different fields such as Thermal Plasma Technology (PVD), Nanotechnology, Energy and
Environment.
The IISTE is a pioneer in the Open-Access hosting service and academic event
management. The aim of the firm is Accelerating Global Knowledge Sharing.
More information about the firm can be found on the homepage:
http://www.iiste.org
CALL FOR JOURNAL PAPERS
There are more than 30 peer-reviewed academic journals hosted under the hosting
platform.
Prospective authors of journals can find the submission instruction on the
following page: http://www.iiste.org/journals/ All the journals articles are available
online to the readers all over the world without financial, legal, or technical barriers
other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. Paper version
of the journals is also available upon request of readers and authors.
MORE RESOURCES
Book publication information: http://www.iiste.org/book/